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Making waves at Cowes

Learning to love sailing the hard way

It is a source of sadness to me that my father, Donald, having been regular touchline witness to my sporting mediocrity - almost making the county schools rugby side, and nearly getting a hole in one at Troon - has, since his death four years ago, missed the middle-aged renaissance in my sporting life. Being a member of the British and Irish Lions in 2005, cycling up Mont Ventoux, 90 minutes slower than Lance Armstrong, training with Paul Tergat and the Kenyan long distance running squad, playing for a Gordon Banks v Pele team and for the Rest of the World alongside Diego Maradona at a packed Old Trafford. You see, there have been sporting advantages to being the media's antichrist of the Blair era.

But the Cowes Regatta? And sailing? And loving it? Come on. My Dad knew my views growing up - that certain events and institutions were less about sport